Laser therapy of cancer of the gastrointestinal and biliary tracts.

Endoscopic laser therapy for the palliation of malignant tumors of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract has rapidly gained widespread acceptance by the medical community. This form of therapy can offer significant tumor palliation in a relatively noninvasive manner to patients who have few other therapeutic options. Since its initial use for the treatment of esophageal cancer it has been extended to the treatment of a number of other GI, tract malignancies and has in fact been utilized for the palliation of intra- as well as extrahepatic bile duct tumors. A number of advances have occurred, including improvements in lasers and laser delivery systems, refinement of treatment techniques, development of new wavelengths, and refinement of drugs that allow more specific therapy of cancer. With continued laboratory and clinical investigations, laser therapy should realize its full potential, ultimately becoming a curative treatment modality that will offer patients benefits that are equal to or greater than more invasive and disfiguring surgery without its attendant morbidity and mortality.